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Sunday, 18 June 2017

As no stranger to grand statement projects myself, I was delighted to receive Alan M's photographs of his Eugene's IV Corps using S Range miniatures. Particularly pleasing not to see wall to wall Old Guard and good honest Chasseurs a Cheval of the Line.

These are just taster hotos - the full 40 (yes forty) can be seen here on the Lone S Ranger blog.

Monday, 5 June 2017

15mm are really not my thing so I was unable to help when I was asked by someone looking for 1st generation Minifigs 15mm tricorn SYW cavalry. I did however say I would post his request here. If anyone may have some of these figures available, please contact me through the comments section and I will put you in touch with each other.

Tuesday, 4 April 2017

As this is the second most popular post on Vintage Wargaming, I thought it was about time I posted better scans of this rather tatty newspaper article frrom the Minneapolis Tribune Picture Supplement 17th April 1966.

Saturday, 1 April 2017

A press release has landed at Vintage Towers announcing the
release of a new suite of “Old School” rules today.

Please see below:

The Society of Soggy Bottomed Wargamers are pleased to
announce the release of a new set of generic rules and the first two period
related supplements to enable you to refight the little know Cake Wars of the
late nineteenth century and earlier.

The generic rules set, Baking Powder, have been written by
JB Priestly.

The first two supplements are now available:

Victorian Sponge, for the second the battles of d half of
the 1800s, covering the golden age of baking and the Swiss role in them;
scenarios include Pavlova and Baklava

The World Turned Upside Down Cake, for the 17th
Century (ECW – English Cake Wars)

Watch out for the forthcoming AWI (Awesome White Icing) variant
by Eclairer, and the Medieval and Dark Ages supplements Simnel and Scandi Toskvig
Godwinson.

Other periods in the pipeline for supplements include the
ACW (American Cake Wars) and RCW (Russian Cake Wars).

We are pleased also to announce a new associated range of
6mm figures by Mary berry od Bakeus Miniatures, but the rules will of course
also work with 10mm, 15mm, 20mm and 28mm. Add a little Hollywood to your Wargaming.

The rules feature:

Special rules including for Baker rifle armed units; the rolling
pinning of opponents; and individual acts of heroism contributing to the
brownie points required for victory

Sunday, 8 January 2017

I've had time for a quick first look at the Bruce Weigle 1870 booklet - not so much the rules as the historical information, aems and tactics stuff. This is excellent and all that I had hoped. Its flagged up a number of things I had thought would be significant but it was good to have them confirmed:

the long range fire zone of French Chassepots

the superiority in materiel, training, and handling of the German artillery

While this helps me with thoughts for FPW rules it leaves me considering Georland rules in a slightly different light. Though George Keef uses FPW figures Georland was more like Britain so the specific advantages of eiiher the French or the germans probably should not appear. For example, the British Army rifle of the period was the Snider Enfield, which did not enjoy the long range of the Chassepot.

Therefore I am thinking I might need two versions of any rules, one with the FPW factors and another "vanilla" one for Georland use, which is more generic.

I also want to take a look at a few other sets of rules to see if there is anything else I should take into account/borrow. next stop here is going to be the late nineteenth century rules in George Gush and Andrew Finch's A Guide to Wargaming.

Friday, 6 January 2017

... which arrived yesterday: Bruce Weigle's 1870 ruleset. It is for my twin tracked Franco Prussian War and Georland plans for this year. I have bought this for the historical information,OOBbs, scenarios etc it contains rather then the rules themselves.

I know what I want from my Georland rules (and I hope they will work just fine for FPW as well). I want something that will give a quick game and a reasonable period feel. For this reason I am looking to amend Command and Colors Napoleonics. I want to use this as the basis rather than Battle Cry as I think it will reflect European Warfare better. I will look to develop some simple amendments - I hope relatively few tweaks will be necessary, possibly infantry firing ranges and affect, French have more effective rifles, Germans have better artillery - can't believe it will only need that, so I have an interest at looking at other FPW rules to see if there are particular things to take into account. However, it seems unlikely to be that simple...

Ultimately I am after something stylised to fit in with the hex terrain, buildings, figures and basing I am intending to use.

Tuesday, 3 January 2017

I still have to decide what to do about flags. I want to be able to use the figures for Franco Prussian War as well as Georland. It is not so much an issue for the German troops but I need to decide whether to simply use French flags for Georland, or design a Georland flag and work out a way of alternating these - possibly by converting officer figures which can accommodate different flags and poles by drilling out a hand to receive them.

One of the good things about the Miniature Figurines Franco Prussian War Range was the presence of figures for various of the German States allied to Prussia, mainly for infantry but also including Bavarain cavalry and Wurttemberg artillery. These national contingents give some flexibility when representing the enmies of Georland.

Artillery pieces are by B&B and RAFM. The B&B Krupp gins have split trails, which I don't think are accurate, but I haven't been able to confirm this.

I acquired an Ebay lot of about 25 Wurttemberg gunners hence the over representation of their artillery arm - the first two rows of guns (and first four rows of gunners) in the picture above. In fact the Wurttembergers were the only German in the FPW range.

Prussian and Bavarian gun crews (Bavarians the middle of the three crews). These figures are conversions now available from John Cunningham. Most of the guns in this photo are RAFM. They have single trail carriages but the moulds are obviously well past their prime, with parts missing.

Sunday, 1 January 2017

Army Commander - so this will be the famous General Mercury. I am still thinking what to do His Imperial Majesty - possibly the same figure with a fancier paint job, and a larger oval base including escort and ADC.

I have been painting up and organising my various S Range Franco Prussian War figures, along with some Crimean figures which jointly form my Second Empire/Red Trouser French forces.

These are partly for FPW gaming but also for my intention to refight some of George Keef's campaigns from the 1870s and 80s as detailed in the History of Georland blog.

Figures are individually based on MDF (20x20mm for foot and 20x40mm for mounted) and then placed in movement trays accommodating six infantry in two ranks or three cavalrymen abreast. An infantry battalion is four companies of six figures and a squadron of cavalry two troops of three figures each.

Cpmmanders and some infantry unit command stands us circular bases of different sizes, showing different levels of command.

I'm going to photograph and post these over the next few days but here are the French (and Georland) cavalry for starters.

My Georland Army will use Minifigs S Range French figures, mainly Franco Prussian War but augmented by some Crimean War red trouser era (Second Empire). This seems appropriate as George Alfred Keef's soldiers were Franco Prussian War types bought in bilk in the 1870's, although his figures were German-made 40mm demi-rondes.

So we will start with these Crimean figures:

Line Infantry

Imperial Guard Infantry

Zouaves and Turcos (the same figures, just different paint jobs)

Then the Franco Prussian War Infantry units:

Imperial Guard

Chasseurs a Pied

Zouaves

Turcos (the same figure with a different paint job)

Naval Infantry

Voltigeurs

Line Infantry (three battalions)

I still have to further research the Georland Order of Battle and work out which units these figures can represent.

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This site uses a range of sources to provide access to information about wargaming, for the most part from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. These sources are mainly paper based, may be ephemeral (catalogues, price lists, painting instructions etc), and in general are not easily accessible elsewhere.

I am particularly grateful to Don Featherstone and to John Tunstill, who have both given their permission for the reproduction of materials from their ground breaking magazines, respectively Wargamer's Newsletter and Miniature Warfare (and later Miniature Wafare and Model Soldiers).

Where possible I have made efforts to obtain permission for reproduction of any material covered by copyright.

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